A Beetle and a Babe
by Chilly Kitty
Summary: Lydia has realized something; She's in love with her best friend. The problem is that he's dead. - Cartooniverse. Lots of fluff for Beetlebabes. I hope the first chap reads like a one shot cause idk if the second's getting written. Rated T for language and minorly suggestive themes in future chapters probably, idk i havent written them yet.


Lydia Deetz was alive. This normally wasn't problematic, of course it made it easier to do things like go to school and make fellow living friends. Even if she wanted a bit of deadly, strange and unusual things, she could just call upon her best friend, The Ghost With The Most himself. She was lucky to say the least, living the best of the living world and the Neitherworld.

But you see, despite all this, there was a problem. It was a problem that was quite similar to what plenty of teenage girls faced when they started to get interested in matters of the opposite gender. Even those girls who weren't interested in boys would likely come across a situation like Lydia's. It was a problem that one could only have if they were alive. Although Lydia's had one obvious difference.

Lydia was in love with a guy. Specifically, a dead guy.

She came upon this after reading a poem called 'Romance' by Edgar Alan Poe. Before this, she'd never read anything even remotely romantic other than a few of Shakespeare's stories of course. However she'd read the Shakespeare stories long ago, before she'd ever really considered love and romance and things of the like.

She didn't read to much anyway, she was usually too busy taking pictures or causing and solving mishaps with Beetlejuice, so when one particular afternoon she'd realized she hadn't read anything gothic in awhile she decided to find something classic. And nothing gets more classic gothic than practically any story by Edgar Alan Poe.

She got up from the bed she'd previously been sitting on, analyzing some pictures she'd recently developed in the dark room. She set the photos down on her desk and went over to her bookshelf, finding a book filled to the brim with Edgar Alan Poe stories and stepping back to her bed to flop down on it.

She skimmed through the pages, trying to find one that she hadn't read in a while, till she stumbled upon one she'd never read before. With one look at the title, she could see why. Though she shrugged, she was bored and it couldn't hurt to read, if she didn't find a decent story soon enough she could just summon Beetlejuice; he always had some way to entertain her.

And so she read it.

And it was quite sad, as could be expected of Poe, the only thing more expected of him was gore and suffering, which this poem was mostly lacking.

But why was it sad? Simply put the poem was about idealized romance of the young and innocent in the first half and the cold harsh reality of the world in the latter.

Lydia read it several times, sitting up and holding the book close to her face as she eyed every word. It was almost like she was being warned that one day she'd have to grow up to a world without joy, a world without romance, and a world without Beetlejuice.

She dropped her book, she hadn't meant to think that, that third part didn't make any sense, perhaps she was distracted and her mind combined multiple thoughts into one incoherent one. She blinked hard and looked to the mirror. Without a thought she set the book down and got up to strol closer. She looked into it, seeing herself staring back. She felt strange and confused, she knew that good poetry was supposed to make you feel things but this was just plain unusual. She promptly turned and headed to her bookshelf again, this time dusting off a different classic; Romeo and Juliet.

Lovers from two different worlds never being able to be together in life or death.

She furrowed her eyebrows barely being able to skim through the end of the book before she stood up to get another, this time it was another Skakespeare story; Taming of The Shrew. She was honestly surprised she'd allowed such a thing to reside on her shelf.

A man weaseling his way into a woman's heart and nagging her down until she loved him.

She slammed the book and paying no attention to how much time had passed she looked for another, something less Shakespeare. She grabbed Counte of Monte Cristo and fell back onto her bed.

A man tricked by his friends and betrayed by his lover gets his revenge before finding happiness and falling in love with another.

Lydia was quick to set the book down after skimming through the pages, it was definitely a warning in who to trust in a relationship. She got up to get another and another, and another until she was forced to work with stories that she'd barely be able to consider romance, infact no sane person would consider them romance and yet it was the only thing she had.

She was halfway through reading The Cask of Amontillado when she heard a sound, "Babes?"

She slammed the book and jolted into a sitting position as she stared in horror at the mirror. The most gruesome man she had ever seen stared back at her, she relaxed, "Oh hey Beetlejuice." She raised her hand to her chest as an attempt to force it to slow after being startled like that.

Beetlejuice cocked an eyebrow at her, "What's with the library?"

"Um.." She glanced at her mass of stories that were scattered around her room, "Just some light reading."

"If that's light than so am I." He said, making his skin glow like a light bulb for a moment.

Lydia laughed and instantly she felt more relaxed. She wasn't entirely sure what had her so worried before. She looked to the mirror to see that Beetlejuice had got a smile as well. Lydia stood after a moment, "Beetlejuice."

"That's my name."

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice."

With that, Beetlejuice juiced her to the Neitherworld, where she donned a red poncho and laughed along side her best friend.

The next day in school, she was rather distracted. Prudence and Bertha noticed and questioned her about it, she quickly responded with an excuse that she hadn't slept well the night before. Which was true though she only couldn't sleep because her mind was too distracted by what those stories seemed to awaken.

She didn't summon Beetlejuice when she got home, he did appear in the mirror but she simply said that she was busy today and she'd talk to him tomorrow.

She didn't talk to him tomorrow though. When he appeared, she told him that she couldn't summon him today either, which he got rather huffy about. She couldn't help it though, she couldn't be with Beetlejuice while her mind was in the state.

It had apparently been five days since she'd last been to the Neitherworld when her mother noticed her acting off. Delia Deetz was not an observant creature, so Lydia was alarmed when she strolled into her room with one question, "Lydia, is something wrong?"

"Uh, no Mother." She said, "I'm just.. tired."

"You've been 'tired' like this for almost a week." She stated. It weirded Lydia out to see her Mother so blatantly concerned for her.

Lydia's eyebrows furrowed for a moment, she looked at the ground of her room that had just continued to get more chaotic. She normally cleaned up after herself right away but five days had passed and she hadn't bothered to pick up anything. She looked to her mother again. "Mother I.. I think I.." her words got caught in her throat, "I have a crush.."

"Oh!" Delia spoke, "Young love! How sweet." She swooned, no doubt thinking of ways she could mess with this. Like making Lydia a new outfit or planning a date for her.

"Yes but there's a problem." She said, getting her mother's attention again, "He's.." _dead_, she didn't say that, she quickly came up with something else. "He's my friend and I don't want to tell him how I feel.. what if I lost him..?"

You see, while a lot of the books surrounded her were the stories she'd already owned, she had gained quite the collection of library books and she concluded one thing from it all, other than a few poorly written teen romances, the living should not be romantically involved with the dead.

"So you're worried that telling him of these new feelings will change your relationship with him?" Delia asked, causing Lydia to nod, "Oh Lydia." Delia smiled, "These feelings are unavoidable if you're in love, and wouldn't things change your relationship even if you don't tell him?"

Lydia gained a thoughtful frown, and then her eyebrows furrowed, "I've been avoiding him." She said quietly, "Oh no, I didn't even realize." She spoke, "but I.. I can't tell him what if.." What if he stops existing? If what she knew was correct then Beetlejuice was a poltergeist, dead emotions, not a dead person. And though there's not much proof, she feared the worst, what if she caused his emotions to change by telling him? What if he ceased to exist? She knew he could just disappear if his body parts were separated during sunset. What if his emotions were as strange as a separated body? And worst of all, what if he'd be just fine but he didn't want to even be friends anymore? Still, she shouldn't avoid him like this, it was just rude.

She looked to her mother, "Lydia," Delia spoke with a sweet smile, "It's up to you on whether you tell him or not, I can't tell you what's best." She said something remarkably reasonable, "But if you do tell him and everything works out, you simply must bring him over for dinner sometime! Your father and I would love to meet the young man who has stolen your heart!"

She was starting to sound a lot more like herself, which made Lydia huff out a smile, "Of course, Mother."

After a short while, Delia left the room for Lydia to contemplate, she didn't have much time to do so before Beetlejuice appeared in her mirror.

"Hey Lyds." He said with significantly less energy than normal, "I'm guessing you're busy again today?"

She shook her head, "I'm not busy."

Beetlejuice lit up, literally, a similar stunt to what he pulled five days ago. "Oh boy, you just brightened up my day." He grinned, "Go ahead, say it!"

Lydia let out a small giggle, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice." It hadn't been a week since she last said these words and yet it felt like it'd been so much longer, it brought the same rush of joy that it did the first time she said them. Though all she could do to show her feeling was weak smile.

Beetlejuice popped out of the mirror and into the world of the living at once. "It's been so long!" He said as his torso grew, "It's good to be back!" His back spun around for his back to become his front before he shrank down to his regular size and spun his torso back to normal.

Lydia almost laughed, she wanted to laugh, but she didn't.

"So what's been holding you up Babes?" He asked, making her levitate with a snap of his red tipped fingers.

"I've.. been thinking." She stated as she was being set back down.

"You know you can think while I'm here, right?"

"Not this time." She said quickly, she was still thinking and Beetlejuice's presence made it harder. She wanted to tell him and yet she didn't. She was near certain that nothing good could come from a ghost and a mortal falling in love. That is if he felt the same way, which she was certain he didn't. He'd either try to date her just to be nice or, in the more likely scenario would turn her down immediately and try to make things normal again. Yet things would most definitely not be normal again. The third scenario caused a shutter to go through her, she really didn't want him to leave her completely just because he didn't feel the same way.

"What's wrong Babes?" Beetlejuice stepped closer, "And why does it require a library in your room?"

She could picture it perfectly. He'd be disgusted, and not in a good way, he'd try to be nice but still make it clear that it would never work. Then he would leave to the Neitherworld, never responding to her summons again.

She felt her eyes water. At some point she had stopped looking at the ghost and started looking at the ground, not focusing on anything in particular. She bit her lip to keep from sobbing and turned around, attempting feebly to hide it from Beetlejuice.

"Babes." Though her attempts were pointless as he flew around her to look at her face. "Lyds, what's wrong?" He stood in front of her, clearly unsure of what to do. It was obvious that he cared for her, of course he cared for her, he was her best friend after all. And yet she was certain that if she said anything, she could ruin everything.

She was shocked when he pulled her in for a hug but she didn't fight it. After a moment she returned the exchange by wrapping her arms around his back and leaning her cheek onto his chest, just under his shoulder.

"Lydia." Beetlejuice started, she could feel his words vibrate in his chest, "Please tell me what's wrong."

She squeezed him harder and squinted her eyes shut, just wanting to savor the moment with him in case it did turn out to be their last together. She held him like that for a long while before she felt him stiffen, she was worried that he was about to let go, it was now or never, so she took a deep breath and,

"I love you."

She didn't say it.

He did.

She froze and then pulled away, leaving her hand on his shoulders, staring at him with eyes that were ruined but running mascara and eyeliner.

"You what?" she blinked

He didn't make eye contact, "Don't make me say it again."

He was quite cute, shyly looking away while still keeping his arms wrapped around her. She laughed. She couldn't help it, all of the relief rushed to her at once and she laughed, she never stopped crying however so it wasn't a cute giggle but rather a soggy, happy mess.

"You know that wasn't a joke, right?" He asked, concern in his eyes as he looked at her again.

She shook her head and wiped her nose, "I know it wasn't." she grinned, "I love you too." she said, causing his jaw to drop, literally of course. She giggled as he let go and scurried to put it back on, "That's why I've been avoiding you, that's why I've been reading all of this." She gestured around at her mass of romance and supernatural books.

"Really?" He looked around. She nodded, wiping her eyes with the palms of her hands and trying to sniff away her shaking breath, "Oh babes." he said, closing the gap between them once again, he put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer, a wicked grin appeared on his face. She smiled back, trying to dry away more tears before wrapping her arms around his neck. Her eyes went to his lips and her smile dropped, as did his, not literally this time. His lips looked… soft, unlike how they did last time she considered kissing him. Although when she'd said she could kiss him last time, she was turned off by his crooked teeth, not his lips. His teeth were no shining pearls now but they were significantly less disgusting, especially considering the fact that they were actually inside his mouth, unlike how they used to hang out when she was a kid. She briefly wondered when he changed them.

She wasn't sure who leaned in first, perhaps both of them did at the same time, she didn't know. All she knew was Beetlejuice's lips were pressed against hers. She let a hand slide up to the back of his head, ruffling his already ruffled blonde hair in the process. The kiss didn't taste bad, and she quickly realized that he must of juiced away the constant morning breath for her. She grinned against his lips before leaning her forehead against his. "I love you." she reiterated, relieved that the last few days of worrying were for nothing.

"I love you too."


End file.
